Ok, this isn't going as fast as I'd like, like you I'm eager to get the main event under way but I've got some more background and fillers to do first.
GcNm: Interesting site you found and an intriguing vault premise too, but I think you're right about it not being canon. I think it's an ideas website that tries to look like the official wiki site. I actually chose number 66 because 1966 was the year the Cybermen were created.
eaglescorch: Pride is ever the downfall of many a villain and there a few from the game you could say that about (Eden, Autumn, Ashur and Caesar to name a few). Delta has more than he should, it's true but he has more than a few reasons to be smug and proud.
Vect the Atoner: The cyborgs are an out of field faction that the Lone Wanderer has clashed with before in my last fic (read Steel Vengeance if you want their origins). Leon mellowed a little toward some of the Enclave too during that time. He probably wouldn't like House if he'd met him (he is similar to Eden on a few levels). The cyborgs don't know about Yes Man as yet as their info comes from the NCR and the Legion, neither of which knows about him, interesting idea though...
Oddliver: They had the sterile underground set up last time so I thought I'd try something different. Wait until you see what it's armed with :).
Time for a little more of the cyborgs' back history and the big 2 finally meet...and clash.
Freeside
Jaden knew the Phantom had picked a good spot for their meeting. Hardly anyone came out to the old railway station now that the NCR had cleaned out. Everyone had insisted on going with him despite Jaden's reservations; he didn't want to scare the Phantom off.
"That's hardly likely," Boone had reasoned. "Numbers don't seem to scare him."
"I'm not sure if anything scares him," Cass remembered her first encounter and the gruesome way he'd dispatched the Patriots with a shudder.
The whole party had reached the back of the railway station by now. Jaden hadn't been here since he'd broken up a firefight between the NCR and Pacer awhile ago.
Ashley looked confused. "Ok, it's midday now. So where is he?"
This time Jaden was alert and his combat instincts didn't fail him. "He's already here."
"Your senses aren't as bad as I thought," Leon decloaked a few feet away startling everyone except Jaden. "But then again I suppose you didn't expect me inside that big home of yours."
"The Dark Phantom, I presume," Jaden kept his tone neutral despite his nerves fraying a little. The Phantom in his dark armour was even more intimidating in person than he was on a screen.
Leon snorted. "Amazing what names these radio stations come up with. Not the most flattering one I've ever had but I suppose it served the purpose and kept me hidden."
"From what I've seen you do it's hard to believe you need that at all," Cass couldn't believe someone this strong felt the need to stay out of sight. "Thanks for the other day at Novac by the way."
"Don't mention it," Leon replied. "I never did have much time for Raiders no matter what cause they claimed to serve."
"And what cause do you serve?" Arcade asked suspiciously.
"Something better than the one that built that floating piece of tin hovering next to you," Leon replied with some acid in his tone as he spotted ED-E.
ED-E spluttered in mid-air almost angrily.
"What's wrong with ED-E?" Jaden asked somewhat confused.
"With the robot, nothing at all. With the cause it served; quite a lot." Leon tossed his holotag over to Jaden.
"Paladin Commander, eastern chapter?" Jaden raised his eyebrows as he read that. This warrior was well out of his home turf if this was accurate.
"The Brotherhood has a base elsewhere?" Boone asked in shock.
Veronica nodded. "There was a large faction in the Brotherhood that refused to join the war against the NCR and split away. They were led by Elder Olwyn Lyons and Scribe Rothchild if I remember right."
"That's right, except Lyons has retired and Rothchild's now Elder," Leon informed them.
"You're a long way from home then," Ashley observed. "It must be for something real important."
"I'd hardly be here were it otherwise," Leon agreed. "And it's bigger than you think. It's not just New Vegas at risk."
"At risk from what?" Veronica asked. She knew it had to be big if it had got a Brotherhood chapter running scared.
Leon smiled coldly under his mask. "Well I find some things are better shown than told and, as good as your friends are, I'm still not sure you're capable enough to handle this threat."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Cass barked indignantly.
"Just what I said. You're tough and capable, sure. I'm just not certain whether that's enough."
"We drive the Legion away from Hoover Dam and you doubt us?" Even Boone's pride was starting to get hurt.
"That's just the problem; you judge yourselves against the enemies you've had up to now. Raiders, Tribals, robots, the Legion. They're all nothing compared to what's waiting now," Leon countered.
"So your plan is to show us? You're going to do that all by yourself?" Ashley asked with a mocking tone.
"If you wish," Leon smirked.
Ashley couldn't work out where his confidence was coming from. ""Just you against 7 of us and we're all armed?"
"Well now that you mention it..."
Before anyone could stop him Leon activated his stealth mode again and slipped out of sight.
"Oh great," Jaden muttered whilst giving Ashley a frigid look. So much for a cordial meeting.
"Looks like we're doing this the hard way," Boone got ready with his rifle and the rest of the team wasted no time in drawing their weapons.
"Stay close, if we do that he can't take us all," Ashley advised as she starting aiming around with her service rifle. She ended up in a circle back to back with Boone, Raul was next to him with his 44 one side, Cass on the other with her caravan shotgun and Arcade had drawn his plasma defender. Jaden and Veronica stood some distance away separately, Veronica with her power fist raised and Jaden scanning around with his pip boy. Despite their best efforts the Phantom had eluded them.
"Can you see him?" Raul asked as they all looked here, there and everywhere.
"He's right here!"
"Wha...?" Raul didn't have time to think before the Phantom decloaked right next to them and his gun was knocked out of his hands and sent flying by a black fist. Cass and Boone had no more luck as they too were disarmed by high speed punches. Arcade tried to aim for his head but the Phantom moved his head to one side as he fired and his shot flew past into nowhere. Ashley whirled around fast but Leon grabbed her rifle by the barrel and her shot was wasted too.
Jaden and Veronica were agape at how quickly the tables had turned. Jaden knew the Phantom had to be using his VATS system; the speed with which he disarmed his friends didn't seem possible any other way. Leon didn't let up either. He kept going by disarming Arcade; sending his defender skittering across the floor and then, to the amazement of everyone, he trashed Ashley's rifle by literally bending the barrel. He finished off with a massive kick to Ashley's chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her into everyone behind finishing with them as a dazed heap on the floor.
Veronica wasn't about to let that pass as she ran at Leon full speed with her power fist cocked. She knew that even if he tried to block it she could fracture his arm or something. Not the way it turned out. Leon saw her coming, calmly turned to face her, clenched his right arm into a fist and blocked her punch easily sending a stunned Veronica stumbling back with a cry of pain. It was like she'd slammed her hand into a brick wall.
"Veronica!" Jaden was at her side instantly as she decoupled her power fist to tend to her hand.
"God, his arms are like concrete!" Veronica was aghast. The force of her punch had backfired and she knew she was lucky to get away with a bruised knuckle.
"Poor performance indeed," Leon scoffed. "I hope you've got more to offer, Courier, or this is going to be a very short battle."
Jaden snarled and drew his katana. If this guy wanted a battle he'd give him one. He'd taken out Lanius, he could do this.
"Nice sword," Leon nodded in approval as he popped out his serrated sword blade from his right arm. "Now let's see if you can use it..."
Sky Carrier
Delta coldly smiled as he sat in his command chair on the carrier's bridge. He'd had a much easier time of rebuilding the cyborg race than he'd ever dreamed possible. It was hard to imagine that only three years ago he and a few other remaining cyborgs had fled from Vault 66 in Vertibirds. Now, through a mix of skill, opportunity and luck, he had a new cyborg army and another chance to establish the new order that their late creator Alpha had dreamed of. Their initial landing site, an abandoned Enclave airfield outpost in the middle of north Nevada, had been perfect for starting their recovery. Out in the middle of nowhere and well off any caravan routes, it was tailor made for setting up a new conversion plant and starting over. In the past it had been a stop off point for Alpha, when he was still Henry Vaughan, on his way over to Vault 66.
The Enclave had stopped here too to recover as much technology and weapons as possible and move on. The mobile crawler had been stored here in preparation to expand their operations eastward after the California operation had been completed; instead they'd had to use it to aid their retreat from the NCR/Brotherhood alliance before they were discovered again. What no one had ever known was that the crawler was their second choice of vehicle. The first choice Delta was sitting in now. The Enclave had built the sky carrier but they'd run into technical problems and hadn't been able to get it operational. Richardson's defeat ran them out of time and ensured they never would; forcing them to use the ground crawler and head for Raven Rock to start their ill fated Capital Wasteland campaign.
Initially progress had been slow at first on all fronts. Being out in the sticks guaranteed no chance of discovery but it also meant there weren't any settlements to prey on. They'd had to start small, using the Vertibirds for transport into Oregon and the Nevada/California border to make snatch raids there. It took the best part of a year to build up a decent force of replacement drones to expand their conversion capability.
The west coast had proved to be a fertile recruiting ground for him. While he'd stayed clear of the two biggest factions, the NCR and Caesar's Legion, there were plenty of wastelanders and settlers for him to make use of. They'd never been detected; people went missing all the time and, more often than not, he and his other cyborgs hadn't had to use force to take people into his fold. By sending out camouflaged cyborgs like Omicron and Rho it was easy. Promises of food, shelter and a better life made for easy recruitments. Of course no one told the hapless recruits that the 'better life' involved cyber upgrade but that would kind of defeat the purpose.
"A pity the Enclave isn't still around isn't it?" Iota had come up in the elevator to join him.
"Yes, I suppose we owed them a thank you note for leaving this ship to us," Delta smirked. "I'd have given them that before painfully deleting them once and for all. Still there's plenty of old world waste left to destroy."
"True enough," Iota agreed. "The NCR first of all. New California Republic, what a pathetic name. What's so new about an old world Washington style political set-up? Or the resource wars they've been involved in? Not to mention the corruption of many of their 'leading' families like the Van Graffs. There's nothing new in this at all!"
"Very true," Delta agreed. "The base degenerates that make up Caesar's Legion are hardly an improvement either. Pretending to live two millennia in the past and trying to turn the world's clock back is a pitiful delusion at best. They'll make good drones if nothing else."
"Is Gamma's task force in position?" Iota asked.
"Yes, Epsilon just joined with him on the north border. The attack begins in a few hours. It should prove a good field test for our new beam weapons and the other new equipment we gave them."
"And our new fighters? When do those get deployed?" Iota's tone indicated she couldn't wait to see that.
Delta smiled as he looked at a bank of camera displays, in particular the one showing the launch hangar. It was full to the brim with what Leon would have recognised as Zeta scout craft only they'd been beefed up still further with high output laser guns and rocket pods.
"When phase 3 begins they'll be the first wave of our attack, I must admit I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform too..."
Freeside
Ten minutes on and a sweating and stunned Jaden was still fighting a not so tired Leon. He couldn't believe the strength, reflexes and the endurance of his opponent. Both had taken hits, Jaden's left arm had been gashed and Leon had taken a similar injury across his chest. Since then Jaden hadn't been able to do much, it was taking everything he had just to block Leon's attacks and stay on his feet. His friends couldn't help him as they'd been ambushed by Yuna and Dan and were now being held at laser rifle gunpoint.
Leon was impressed by Jaden's skills too. He'd lasted a lot longer than most opponents Leon encountered nowadays, which was saying a lot since most didn't last 30 seconds in close combat before suffering a snapped neck or some other lethal injury. But then again Jaden was almost a cyborg in his own right as Leon's wide spectrum vision had told him when they'd first met. If not for his medical implants and Big Empty cybernetic organ augments Jaden would have been in real trouble by now.
Jaden was fast running out of moves. He'd lost count of how many times their swords had clashed and how many thrusts and parries he'd been through. Apart from the strike to the chest nothing seemed to faze the Phantom at all. There was only one area he hadn't gone for, the reason being he didn't want to kill the Phantom outright, but since nothing else was working...
Boone and the others could only watch helplessly as the two warriors duelled.
"I can't believe this!" Arcade blurted. "No-one's ever been able to outpace Jaden!"
"Even Lanius couldn't last this long!" Even Boone was starting to sound grim.
Dan overheard that. "Funny, I was about to say something similar. Your leader's done better than anyone I've ever known. But Leon's not your usual opponent!"
Jaden gripped his katana in both hands with the blade pointed behind him in a classic samurai stance. His legs were a little wobbly but he wasn't backing down. Ok this is it...all or nothing!
Leon was taken aback as Jaden ran straight at him screaming in almost focused rage. He snapped back to reality just in time and pulled his head back as Jaden's katana blade carved upwards, slicing and gashing the left side of his face and knocking off his visor. He staggered backward, clutching the bleeding wound.
"Did he do it?" Cass asked.
Yuna and Jake looked on in some concern but they needn't have worried.
Leon started chuckling and stood up again much to Jaden's surprise but then Leon dropped his hands and Jaden's mouth dropped open in complete shock.
First off Leon's wound was self regenerating, albeit slowly, but it was healing. The second shock was Leon's eyes; blood red with gold irises which Jaden knew for sure weren't natural.
"Not bad. Not bad at all!" Leon said in genuine admiration. "But there's an old saying, he who hesitates is lost!"
With that Leon shot out his reinforced leather whip from his left wrist and wrapped up Jaden's legs. Before Jaden knew what was happening he was flat on his back on the ground, his sword arm trapped under Leon's left foot and Leon's sword blade at his throat.
"I believe the expression is 'I win'!" Leon smiled frostily.
"JADEN!" All his companions were aghast but what happened next took everyone by surprise. ED-E flew full steam at the downed Jaden, armed his laser and positioned himself neatly between the two men; spluttering, shaking and almost bleeping expletives. The little robot's intent couldn't be clearer.
"Looks like I underestimated you too," Leon mused as he started to see the protective little eyebot in a new light. "You're sentient, aren't you?"
"He's a close friend," Jaden revealed. He was humbled by ED-E's protective hovering although embarrassed it had come to this. Even Lanius had never put him on his back.
"That's obvious," Leon grinned as he stood off and retracted his blade. "Well he needn't worry. If I'd wanted you all dead I'd have done it in your apartment earlier and I'd have been long gone before your corpses had been found."
He nodded at Dan and Yuna who stood down and lowered their guns. Jaden's group ran over to help him back to his feet, warily avoiding the Lone Wanderer who was retrieving his visor.
"Ok, you kicked our asses and you're pretty powerful," Ashley admitted grudgingly. "But what was all that supposed to do besides humiliating us?"
"Proving a point," Leon icily retorted. "As you can see I'm not exactly human anymore and nor are the enemies you're about to face. You've got courage and guts but that only gets you so far. Better you learned that from me than from them."
"Just what the hell are you?" Jaden had to ask. "You're stronger than anything I've ever fought and I've fought a lot."
"Your moves told me that much," Leon started to unzip the protective wrist covers on his armour. "They would have killed most people. But as you can see..."
Everyone gasped in horror as Leon finished removing his arm guards and revealed his true nature. Both arms were pure solid silvery metal.
Veronica found her voice first. "That's Adamantium! Holy...how much of you is...?"
"Arms, legs, skull and skeleton," Leon replied coldly. "Oh plus self healing medical and combat implants and of course the new improved optics. To put it bluntly; I'm a cyborg and so are your new enemies. Difference is I have a soul...and they don't!"
NCR north border
An impatient Gamma and his 800 strong task force were in position and eager to go. Epsilon's arrival hadn't exactly helped his mood either.
"I thought we were supposed to delete and destroy anything in our way," he'd argued when Epsilon had arrived and explained the reason for his presence.
"I'm only looking for one subject or two, ten at the outside," Epsilon countered. "It's not that much to ask is it?"
"I suppose not," Gamma conceded. "And you'll be useful to have with us when we deploy the new nanotech drones; if there are any problems we'll have an expert on hand."
"Just don't sideline me," Epsilon warned. "I'm here to get combat experience too."
"You'll get plenty of that, don't worry. The local populace is reported to have a basic level of armament and the NCR will send its military here sooner or later."
He was interrupted by a call from the carrier over his radio.
"Task force leader, report!"
"Gamma to carrier, task force is ready and fully operational."
"Excellent," Delta replied. "Commence phase 2 forthwith. March south through the valley in front of you and decimate every settlement you encounter. There are to be no survivors except what you take for the Prometheus program. Your objective is to reach the New Reno/Shady Sands border by any means necessary."
"And if the NCR sends the bulk of its army to confront us?" Gamma asked with a smile as he knew what the answer was going to be.
"Then show those pathetic organics how our weapons work and how superior our race really is to them!" Delta replied. "First things first, sweep the valley and clear out the settlements. Begin at once."
"Complying!" Gamma switched frequencies on his radio. "Gamma to all sections; prepare to commence offensive operations. Standard drones will lead with devastators in close support. Arachnotrons will monitor the skies and support the main force as needed. Delete all opposition! Today the NCR falls and Cyberia will rise!"
"Looks like I'll get some experience sooner than I thought!" Epsilon was more than a little pleased.
"Yes, but be cautious. If you are accidentally deleted then I will be too when this is over! Stay close to the main battle group and take no unnecessary risks."
"Understood."
With that the two lead cyborgs left the watch tower to join the rest of their hybrid force as they began to march south. They'd been sending false radio reports back to the NCR over the last day and there'd been no inspections due on the border posts. In short, no one knew they were even there yet, a fact that would soon change when the small towns, villages and other settlements in front started to fall.
Gamma expected a lot of opposition once they were through the valley, not that he was very worried by that prospect, far from it. True to his programming and his Imperator, Gamma hated organic human life but he was contemptuous of the NCR. A corrupt shell of the old America that enriched just an elite few and justified it all by flaunting their democracy and rule of law as though they were religions.
In his previous life Gamma had been a wasteland settler who'd run from a land dispute with the NCR and an easy target for Delta's recruitment drive. In fact his bitterness and hatred had run so deep that, when he was confronted by the truth about his 'benefactors', he'd actually requested cyber upgrade. Much like Delta, his hatred and fiery personality had been enhanced through it and now he was about to perform a tit for tat. The NCR had driven him away, now he would return the favour and evict them...out of existence.